In recent weeks I have fought with VoIP difficulties on webinars using three different web conferencing technologies. Is VoIP truly ready for prime time?

A bit of background first for those unfamiliar with the terminology and concept. VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. In our particular niche – looking at web conferencing – it refers to letting participants use a microphone or headset connected to their computer as a way to let other meeting participants hear their voices.

This is subtly different from “broadcast audio” or “streaming audio”, which deals with the transmission of sound out to participants’ computer speakers. The sound in that case may come from a telephone call patched in to the web conference or from recorded audio clips being played as part of the meeting content.
VoIP is a great concept. When it works correctly, it offers several potential advantages:

* It removes a separate technology (telephones) from your meeting equipment requirements and places focus solely on the computer.

* It reduces the complexity of instructions you need to send out to participants, since there are no telephone numbers and codes to remember.

* It can reduce costs by eliminating telephone connection charges.

Unfortunately, VoIP is prone to several disadvantages as well:

* Not everyone owns a computer headset/microphone. If your participants don’t have the right equipment, they are helpless (I think it’s fair to say that everyone has access to a telephone).

* Computer-connected headsets require configuration for use. Many web conference participants are not experienced or patient enough to go through the right steps. You are dealing with a computer peripheral that has drivers to load and interactions with Control Panel settings. Simply getting your computer to select the headset as the input/output audio device to use can flummox users on occasion.

* The interaction between the conferencing software and the headset can potentially be confusing (to use a charitable term). I have had cases where the order of connection can mean the difference between success and failure. I’m not saving myself any time in connection instructions if I have to tell participants to connect their headset first. Then select it in Control Panel. Then start the conferencing software. Then confirm a popup box that lets Flash recognize the device. Then run a test step to set audio levels.

* This isn’t a fair ding against the technology itself, but the nasty fact is that most of the computer headsets I’ve come across out there in the general community are of appallingly low quality. Businesses all too often seem to tolerate purchases of VoIP headsets as a lowest-possible-cost toy rather than as a valued business asset.

Even when everything else works, computer headsets in webcasts sometimes exhibit random behaviors that are nothing short of mysterious. I was on a webinar yesterday where my headset worked fine until I had to replug it right before show time. Then it switched to a feedback mode where my audio was picked up by the mike and rebroadcast. I sounded like I was talking in a giant tin can. I had an event where my client as the primary speaker could use her VoIP headset right up until I connected mine on another computer under a different login, at which time she was blocked out. The vendor couldn’t explain it at all. I gave a training session where we used collaborative participation with audience members on computer headsets. One person could never get his headset to broadcast through the software. One person’s mike was live the entire time, even when explicitly muted in the webcast software.

When these things happen, you can easily spend long, frustrating periods of time trying to diagnose and repair the setup by long distance. And that’s a recipe for disaster with your audience. As soon as they start concentrating on the technology rather than your topic and content, you have lost the battle for effective achievement of your goals in holding the meeting. With my training class, I spent a short time trying to solve my audience’s problems, but ended up rescheduling the session with the promise of a telephone dial in.

All in all, I’ll reserve VoIP participation in webinars for internal business sessions with coworkers I know. Ones where I can tolerate some fumbling and frustration if things get muddled. But for public sessions and webinars where I need to rely on voices actually making it all the way into the web conference without exception, I’ll stick with the telephone as the input device of choice.

By Ken Molay, president of Webinar Success

Bookmark this Article / Socialize It

Hide Sites

The most important thing about the call is your attitude. Attitude is everything! You can be movie star handsome. You can have the best GQ wardrobe. You can have the finest Ivy League education. However, on the phone, image is nothing. Communication skills, project preparation, and attitude are everything.

Picking up the telephone and calling an unknown prospect cold, is not an easy thing to do for a lot of people. They suffer from the fear of the unknown. There is no body language to read. They can’t size the contact up by the cut of their clothes, the firmness of a handshake or the class ring they wear. You are totally at the mercy of your ears and your attitude.

In this medium, the key points are:

1. Maintaining a positive mental attitude at all times. Even if the last guy screamed, cursed and insulted your dog, the next call has to start back at square one. The last call is over with. Finished! Let it go.

2. Maintain a friendly, inviting tone in your voice at all times. People size you up by how you sound on the phone. If you are not confident and friendly, why should they stop what they are doing, to give you five or ten minutes of their valuable time, especially when they are busy? You have to make them WANT to talk to you.

3. I try to sound like the person’s next door neighbor. I strip the professional air and corporate style points out of my arsenal. Remember, they could have fear of the phone too. So, put them at ease and be as non-threatening as possible. Strive to NOT sound like you are a sales person, even if you are one. Many people have a major fear of being sold something they don’t want, over the telephone. I am not a sales person. I am a communicator. The product or service sells itself or I find a new one.

4. Keep opening introductions to a minimum, and don’t over talk out of nervousness. “Hi, Jim, this is Gerry Nason, with Web Attract. I’m calling because we wanted to get your feed back about the Webinar you attended a few weeks ago. What did you think, Jim?” End your opening with a question, and shut up, allowing them a chance to speak.

5. Be a good listener. Under NO circumstances should you be thinking about what you want to say next. If you do this, you might as well put on your coat and head for the exit, because you are wasting your time. Listening is EVERYTHING! Just in case you missed that, listening is everything!

Pay attention to not only WHAT the person is saying, but HOW they are saying it. Voice inflection can tell you a lot. If they are nervous, you can try to calm them. If they talk quickly, try to match their pace, as they are impatient. (Ever call into New York City?) If they have a slow southern or Texas drawl, the last thing you want to do is speak like a New Yorker. Emulate what you hear in order to put them at ease.

6. Try not be nervous or anxious. A very wise former boss of mine taught me when I was just starting out, that I could defeat my nerves by making myself as comfortable as possible.

Instead of sitting hunched over my desk, sitting on the edge of my chair, he had me lean back in my executive chair and put my feet up on the desk. I brought in an ice chest and a big jug of homemade lemonade to sip while talking to prospects. You know what? It not only worked, but it worked crazy good!

7. Finally, throw away the scripts. You CANNOT sound like you are reading. Instead, make a list of talking points. Itemize the value props, the points you wish to make, and the information you need to come away with.

Learn the material, and speak from the heart. Know what you want to say and say it. If you have brain freeze, grab your talking points. If you sound like you are reading a script, even for a moment, you instantly lose your credibility.

I hope that you have enjoyed this series. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at gerry@webattract.com .

Bookmark this Article / Socialize It

Hide Sites

Organization is the key to success in voice prospecting. The better organized you are, the more calls you can make. The less you have to think about your tools, the better your focus will be on making effective presentations.

I have often been asked, what is the best way to organize yourself for a voice campaign. There are many systems for doing so. This is mine.

I prefer to use an Excel spread sheet for my call tracker. It allows me a great deal of versatility and many data bases are formatted to open in an Excel work book. Excel is flexible allowing for fields to be laid out exactly in the order you want to see them.

So, what information are you going to need on a call sheet? Going from left to right, I start with the name of the company, first and last name of the contact, title, telephone number, email address, street address, city, state, zip code, website URL, industry, and comments. I hide all columns except company name, contact name, title, phone number and comments.

The reason that I do this, is because I want to have the data accessible to refer to, but I don’t want it cluttering up my call work sheet either. While on the phone, I want quick reference to who am I calling, how to reach them, and their title. Too much information, too many columns, just bogs you down, so hiding the columns is important.

Should something positive come from the call, you have immediate access to the full picture with a simple left click of the mouse. Also, should you need to access the prospect’s company web site, just click on the URL and it opens immediately. How many times has someone asked you if you know what they do there, or you have wished that you had more in depth information at your disposal?

Another reason that I enjoy Excel as a prospecting tool, is that it allows me to design the size, style and color of the font, column and row to my optimum preference. When someone refers me to another person in the organization, I can add a row right below the name of the person who provided it. All of your data is together in the same location, so there is no need to hunt for it later.

With all of these rows of information, how do you know where who you have called and what the results of the call were? Referring back to the comments section can be slow and tedious, as you may have to read several entries on various rows, to locate the data that you need.

The use of color instantly brings organization to life. Calls where I reached voice mails, I use yellow. Calls where I spoke to the contact, but the answer was no, I use green. Bad numbers/fax numbers, no longer with the company calls are light gray. When I need to call someone back, purple stands out. When I make a sale or generate a lead, red. Obviously, the ones still in white have yet to be attempted.

I can look at my sheet and easily know at a glance, who I’ve called, what the results of the call were, who I need to call back, and find detailed notes of what happened in the contact section for each. It isn’t rocket science, but it works awfully well for me.

My PC is set up to dial my out bound calls for me. I copy and paste the number into the dialer and hit enter. While the phone is ringing, I copy the next number on the Excel sheet, so that I am ready to make another call immediately, should my attempt go to voice mail, or be a wrong number.

While it is ringing, I have highlighted the Excel row for the contact I am calling. I place my cursor on the yellow color block (for voice mail), so if I reach voice mail, I can instantly click the color to record the result on the work sheet, then go to the dialer and hang up, enter the next number, and dial the next contact. In just a second or two, I am on to my next call.

Sales is a numbers game, so the more efficient that you can be, and the more dials you can attempt, the better your end results should be.

Bookmark this Article / Socialize It

Hide Sites

Are your calls being screened out by an over protective admin? The old saying is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. (My apologies to you cat lovers out there.) Well, over 35 years on the job and you are sure to pick up a thing or two.

The first and most simplest trick is to take advantage of company telephone directories. I love directories because there are no gate keepers to deal with, or explain yourself to. Instead of playing twenty questions, you are gathering valuable information.

Many people who work the phone simply hit zero to be directed to the operator as quickly as possible. The value of the directory is that many times, you will be directed right to the decision maker’s extension. At times you may still be directed to their admin’s line, but often times it will ring right at the extension of the person that you are trying to reach.

A good feature to using directories is if you need to call multiple decision makers at the same company, it gets a little embarrassing to call repeatedly through the same switch board operator. Taking advantage of the directory allows you to contact these people without explaining why you are calling so many people, so often.

Often times a directory will also announce the extension number that you are being directed to. Another good feature is if you reach voice mail instead of the person, you will gain the valuable knowledge of how this person presents himself. If you are calling for Gerard Smith, the recording will clue you in to whether he uses Gerard, prefers Gerry, or possibly uses his middle name, by passing Gerard altogether. Speaking to him in the familiar is always a great way to make him comfortable, but when the only person in the world who calls him Gerard is his mother, it is best to avoid it!

Next, we have the work around trick. If I can’t get through to a person because I am being screened out, I will call and ask the operator to connect me to accounts payable or to shipping. Who ever answers the phone, I immediately say to them, “Gee, I guess they sent me to the wrong place. Could you give me the right extension for Gerard Smith please?”

Most times if you ask nicely and use the person’s first name (if they gave it when they answered), they will take the time to help you. If they do, there is an excellent chance that the internal directory they are using, will give them the decision maker’s extension and not the admin’s. If they find it, ask them to please share it with you in case you need to call back. Write it down for future reference, as they are connecting you. Don’t wait until the call is over or you may not remember it.

When using this technique, pay close attention to the voice pattern and attitude of the person who answered. If you sense any hesitation or reluctance at all, proactively say, “Gee, Joan, this is a real important call. I am sure that Gerard will really appreciate it if you could take just a minute to look it up for me. Thanks so much.” Kill them with kindness and make them feel as if they are doing something important, that will help the company and their co-worker!

Areas not to ask for are Sales, Customer Service and Human Resources. Sales people are always looking for an opportunity to make a sale, so they will question you to death trying to see if they can sell you something. Customer Service people are trained to gather information first, to know how to best serve you. Human Resources people generally are also question askers as well. Perhaps it is because they are so aware of head hunters raiding their employees.

The important thing in voice prospecting is to not become an automaton, mindlessly making call after call without applying a measure of creativity to problems. Use your imagination to side step obstacles. Always ask yourself, why this person should put me through to the person I seek? The answer is your key to unblocking the pathway.

Bookmark this Article / Socialize It

Hide Sites

With the recession of the global economy, many sales organizations have migrated to a business model that allows them to cover more ground with a reduced sales budget. Keeping a sales rep on the road is expensive and inefficient, considering the low number of potential sales calls that can be made during a day.

Because of this, there has been a dynamic shift in sales best practices to the use of the telephone and e-marketing. It is easier on the budget and covers much more ground than traditional sales practices.

A typical “road warrior” makes five to ten sales calls in a day. However, you can easily make 100 attempts per day via the phone. We all know that sales is a numbers game.

As a result of this shift in best practices, decision makers are receiving more telephone calls daily. Gatekeepers have become more protective of their executive team. Decision makers are screening their calls via voice mail. So, how do you adjust to the market place’s adjustment to these new tactics?

I make four attempts by phone, over the course of a week. I note the time of each call, who was spoken to, if anyone, and the results. Noting the time allows you to make future attempts at different time intervals. Don’t always start at the top of the list and work your way down. Start at the bottom and work your way up every other day.

On my final attempt, I leave a brief voice mail that is to the point and concise. The attention span of someone, who is screening voice mails, is brief and they are looking for reasons to press the delete button quickly. Think about it. When you delete voice mails, you are sitting there with your finger on the delete button, poise to push, aren’t you? So, it is critical that you capture their attention quickly, or face being deleted into oblivion.

I start out my message with a statement or question that shows the decision maker what is in it for them to let my message play through. “Jim, I have a way that you can (save money, increase productivity, what ever your main value proposition is) that I would like to speak with you about. This is John Doe at Doe and Associates. You can reach me at 888-888-8888. That is 888-888-8888. I look forward to your call.”

It is important that the message is delivered clearly, with a medium level of enthusiasm, confidence and sincerity. Be sure to pronounce your name and the telephone number clearly. Repeat the number in case if the voice mail play back cut out, their pen wasn’t writing, or you went too fast for them to hear you correctly.

Before you begin leaving the message, practice it. Practice the tone of your voice and the pace it is delivered. Leave it on an associates voice mail and then go listen to it, so you can look for ways of improving it. Write your message down, so that it is ingrained in your memory, or in case you have brain fade when the beep comes, you will have a reference point to start from.

Once again, open with a reason for them to want to listen to more. Be friendly and, enthusiastic to induce them to return your call. Be brief in your message. Most of all, be clear in your delivery. After all, if they can’t hear your message, it isn’t going to resonate with them. Right?

What if your voice mail isn’t returned? I usually follow up the voice mail with an email that says, “Jim, I have been trying to reach you several times by phone, but have not been successful. I would like to discuss with you how our Product X can help to save you (time, money, increase productivity, etc.). You can reach me easily by responding to this email or by calling my direct line at 888-888-8888. I look forward to hearing from you soon.”

If this doesn’t work, well, as the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. It is time to move on and save this one for the next sales cycle, and turn your attention to other opportunities.

Bookmark this Article / Socialize It

Hide Sites

3. Navigating Gatekeeper Obstacles

“How do I improve my chances of reaching my target contact?” This is a question that many people ask themselves today. After all, it is rather difficult to make a sale if you can’t gain access to the person making the decisions. So obviously, this is critical for the sales process to begin.

In Part 2, we discussed how to identify the proper decision maker, Now, all we have to do is navigate successfully around gatekeepers, such as Administrative Assistants. This is the difficult part of voice prospecting.

I am convinced that a large part of telephone success comes from the attitude or posture of the caller. Much of this falls back to personal style and comfort level. Personally, I use the “kill them with kindness approach”. It is difficult to be harsh with someone who is so nice that you hate to shut them down.

I try to make them like me, in order to gain entry. I call the admin by name if she answers with it. I record the name for use in future calls. So every time that I call, it is “Hey, Gloria, how’s it going today?” People love to be remembered and the more they like you, the more they will help.

Just think about how many mundane, rude or deceptive calls this person must field in a day, week, month or year. How many calls do you think that this person gets where the caller is actually nice to them? This immediately positions you in a small minority of those she is actually happy to deal with and hear from.

If you are going to be calling on a prospective account month after month, you definitely are going to need this person on your side. After all, she has the power to shut you down each and every call. Getting to know this person, a question at a time, helps to build a rapport over the long term.

When I was head hunting, I used to have a file of just admin information. Many, I knew about their family, their birthday’s, what they did in their off time, etc. I built it by establishing friendliness and honesty and just small talking my way into it. Eventually, I could call on these people to help me with a name, a number, comany information, etc. The minimal time that I had invested paid much larger dividends down the road.

Some people prefer the authoritative approach, where they adopt the posture of a busy, commanding executive, expecting to be put right through. I know one person that this works like a charm for. However, I have always found that the more important that they think you are, the more that they want to cover their backside, and their boss’, by knowing all the details of why you are calling. This approach works rather well on lower level secretaries, but admins that have been around for a while are not as easily intimidated.

So, how much information do we disclose and what do we actually want them to know? This is actually where the sale begins. You have to sell this person that you are not just another sales person, looking to take up her boss’ time.

I generally try to sound as if I belong, using the decision maker’s first name, and an attitude that projects that I am totally comfortable with calling him. Nervousness keys them into the fact that this is your first time and have never spoken to her boss before. I want to project the attitude that I do this all the time and this is business as usual. I answer each of her questions honestly and with a smile in my voice.

If this lady has even a hint that you are hiding something or sidestepping her questions, she will dig and dig and dig until she get’s the information or until you hang up. This just slows you down and does not establishing the right kind of foundation to build on for the future. You want to set the tone for future calls, so alienating this person is only going to make things harder for you down the road. Remember, you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

By Gerry Nason

Bookmark this Article / Socialize It

Hide Sites

Question…….can an existing customer also be a prospect? My perspective on this is that they can be. Within many organizations, there are different decision makers, different application needs, different locations, different divisions, and different global segments.

So, you may be selling widgets to Bob Jones Manager of Department A, in the plastics division located in Peoria, IL, but do you know if there might be an application for your product in Departments B thru Z in this same location? Are you aware if the machined products division in Scranton, PA might have a need? And finally, what about their assembly division in Tijuana, Mexico? Have you ever spoken to them?

If you are not digging deeper, below the surface of your accounts, how are you to know if you are not losing sales revenue? You know the old saying about assuming, don’t you?

So, the next time you speak to Bob Jones in Peoria, simply ask him who else at his facility might also be able to benefit from using your product? Knowing the various ways that your product applies to various situations is a big help in giving Bob examples of how other areas might be able to benefit from it.

If Bob is reluctant to help, or to give names, remind him that if you could help save another department money or increase their productivity, he would look like a hero for his forward thinking and making it happen. Show Bob how it benefits him to put on his thinking cap, and to open his phone directory, to get you the right name and number.

Any referral that you get from Bob, the conversation should start out something like this: “Hey Kevin, this is Mike Smith from the ABC company. I have been working with Bob Jones over in Department A at your facility. My firm specializes in saving companies money/increasing productivity/etc. The reason that I am calling you, is that I was hoping to ask you a few questions about your situation so we can see if we can do for you, what we have done for Bob, or perhaps even more. Is this a good time to talk, or could we schedule some time for later in the week?”

Improving your relationship with current customers is key in developing their business. First call, I ask how frequently I should call to be able to give them good coverage. Tell Bob that you don’t want for him to have to come looking for you, that you want to give him great service, without calling too often.

Each call, is “Hey Bob, it’s been sixty days, so I just wanted to check in with you to see if there is anything that we can do for you. This will show him, that if nothing else, he can count on you to do what you say will. If he seems uncomfortable, ask him if a 90 day window is more realistic.

Each time that you speak with Bob, ask a probing question or two, to learn more about him, his interests, his family, etc. The better you know each other, the stronger the bonds between you. A good way to do this is to talk about your own situation briefly, and then slip in quick question about his. make notes for future reference.

Hey, Bob, you are out there in Peoria, so would that make you a Cubs or a Sox fan? It helps if you know something about how each team did the night before to take the conversation a little deeper. Holidays are great for asking family questions. Halloween time Bob, I am going to have to take the little ones trick or treating tonight. Is that on your agenda, Bob, or have your kids grown out of that yet.

Eventually, you will build a base of knowledge about Bob, his family, his interests, etc. So that sales calls become relaxed, friendly calls to check in with your buddy Bob. The better you get to know him, and vice versa, the Bob may just start to look forward to your calls. Will every one warm up to you, like Bob? Maybe not, but if you can find the magic topic that they love to talk about, it is sure to expand and improve your relationship. Just keep innocently probing different topics each call.

From Gerry Nason

Bookmark this Article / Socialize It

Hide Sites

My name is Gerry Nason and I have worked in tele-sales my entire adult life. I started at 19 years old, and although I don’t feel it, I am 54 years old. Doing the math, that is 35 years in the “Ma Bell School of Hard Knocks”.

Over the next few weeks, I will be undertaking each one of the topics listed below, sharing my experience and expertise with you. Each should make for interesting discussion points, if you would like to share your input with the group. It should make for a stimulating and educational experience for each of us.

1. New Prospect List Management – Who am I going to call? How do I identify the “right” market? Who are the “right” decision makers? How do I find contact names? How do I find the “right” telephone numbers? What sources are there for acquiring new names and numbers?

2. Existing Customers – How often should they be contacted? How do I identify potential new contacts at this location? How do I extend my reach into other locations or divisions within the organization? How do I improve my relationship with my existing contacts?

3. Navigating Gatekeeper Obstacles – How do I improve my chances of reaching my target contact? How do I navigate successfully around gatekeepers such as Administrative Assistants, Switchboard Operators and/or people who just pick up the phone randomly? How can I use the gatekeeper to my advantage?

4. Voice Mail – Friend or Foe? – Is leaving voice mail messages a waste of time or can it be effective? How do I leave an effective voice mail? When is the appropriate time to leave a voice mail message? What if I can’t reach the contact and my voice mail message isn’t returned?

5. Back Doors, Sneaky Tricks and Work Arounds – The old saying is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. (My apologies to you cat lovers out there.) Well, over 35 years you pick up a thing or two to help the cause.

6. Organization and Tracking Campaign Progress – How to know who you have called, how many times you have attempted and know those you have reached from those you haven’t. Nothing is more embarasing than soliciting the same contact twice in the same day. How do I organize and manage the campaign? How can I put my fingers on the information I need ASAP?

7. The Call – What do I say? How do I say it? What are my goals? How do I read the vocal equivalent to body language? What content should I cover? Should I use a pre-written script or just wing it? How do I show the contact what is in it for him, why he should speak with me? When is the best time of day to call? What do I do when I am frustrated? How can I improve my effectiveness?

I don’t want to over burden any of you with too much information, so these are the initial topics. Some we may be able to cover in a week, while some may take a few weeks to completely discuss. I invite each of you to check in weekly for an update and hopefully that you will join in on the resulting discussion, asking questions or sharing your own experiences and ideas.

So until next time, here’s hoping that each of you live long and prosper.

Gerry Nason
Senior Business Development Consultant
WebAttract

Bookmark this Article / Socialize It

Hide Sites